Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation recently resubmitted its preliminary project permits for 1234 Great Highway in the Sunset.
Don’t get too excited: Jacob Goldstein, the project manager, wrote that the project remains “on hiatus.”
The proposed development would transform the parcel of land between Great Highway and La Playa Street, currently a Motel 6, into two eight-story apartment buildings for low-income seniors. The 199 units would include studios, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments, some set aside for formerly homeless seniors.
The development would also include a healthcare center, operated by Self-Help for the Elderly, to provide nursing care, physical and occupational therapy, and mental health counseling.
The project, which will cost an estimated $181 million, has been on hold since changes at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development threatened its financing, and developers lost a key state grant.
The project has been unpopular with some area residents since its inception.
But legislation passed in the last few years — like the city’s constraints-reduction ordinance, which made it easier to build new senior housing, and SB 423, a state bill that fast-tracks projects in jurisdictions like San Francisco that aren’t meeting state housing goals — allowed the project to move forward relatively quickly, until financing got in the way.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is California’s Proposition I. If approved by voters this November, it would authorize the state to issue $11.25 billion in bonds to fund “income-qualified housing.” If Prop I passes, wrote Goldstein, TNDC plans to restart the financing process in January 2027.
Once construction starts, the project would take almost two years to complete. For now, the Motel 6 remains open, with mixed reviews.
Why did the editors decide to label this story “Despite laws intended to make housing easier to build,…”. It’s not “despite” at all. The laws are irrelevant, the financing is not.